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Big Driver

Now a Lifetime original movie, Stephen King's haunting story about an author of a series of mystery novels who tries to reconcile her old life with her life after a horrific attack and the one thing that can save her: Revenge.

In the Tall Grass

In the Tall Grass begins with a sister and brother who pull off to the side of the road after hearing a young boy crying for help from beyond the tall grass. Within minutes they are disoriented, in deeper than seems possible, and they've lost one another. The boy's cries are more and more desperate. What follows is a terrifying, entertaining, and masterfully told tale, as only Stephen King and Joe Hill can deliver.

Drunken Fireworks

Only on audio! A brand-new, never-before-published Stephen King short story unavailable in any other format! Alden McCausland and his mother are what they call “accident rich”; thanks to an unexpected life-insurance policy payout and a winning Big Maine Millions scratcher, Alden and his Ma are able to spend their summers down by Lake Abenaki, idly drinking their days away in a three-room cabin with an old dock and a lick of a beach.

UR

Reeling from a painful break-up, English instructor and avid book lover Wesley Smith is haunted by his ex-girlfriend's parting shot: "Why can't you just read off the computer like everyone else?" He buys an e-book reader out of spite, but soon finds he can use the device to glimpse realities he had never before imagined, discovering literary riches beyond his wildest dreams...and all-too-human tragedies that surpass his most terrible nightmares.

Mile 81

At Mile 81 on the Maine turnpike is a boarded up rest stop, a place where high school kids drink and get into the kind of trouble high school kids have always gotten into. It’s the place where Pete Simmons goes when his older brother, who’s supposed to be looking out for him, heads off to the gravel pit to play “paratroopers over the side”. Pete, armed only with the magnifying glass he got for his 10th birthday, finds a discarded bottle of vodka in the boarded up burger shack and drinks enough to pass out.

The Gingerbread Girl

In the emotional aftermath of her baby's death, Em starts running. Soon she runs from her husband, to the airport, down to the Florida Gulf, and out to Vermillion Key, where her father has offered the use of a shack he has kept there for years. This is doing her all kinds of good, until one day she makes the mistake of looking into the driveway of a man named Pickering. Pickering also enjoys the privacy of Vermillion Key, but the young women he brings there suffer the consequences. Will Em be next?

A Face in the Crowd

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Gwendy's Button Box: Includes Bonus Story "The Music Room"

There are three ways up to Castle View from the town of Castle Rock: Route 117, Pleasant Road, and the Suicide Stairs. Every day in the summer of 1974, 12-year-old Gwendy Peterson has taken the stairs, which are held by strong (if time-rusted) iron bolts and zigzag up the cliffside. At the top of the stairs, Gwendy catches her breath and listens to the shouts of the kids on the playground. One day a stranger calls to Gwendy: "Hey, girl. Come on over here for a bit. We ought to palaver, you and me."

LT's Theory of Pets

LT has a theory about pets, particularly his Siamese cat. It had been their cat, not just his cat, but that was until he came home one day to find a note on the fridge from his wife saying she had left him. Recorded live at the Royal Festival Hall in London, this story demonstrates yet again that no one can tell a tale like Stephen King. Available only in audio!

Revival: A Novel

In a small New England town, over half a century ago, a shadow falls over a small boy playing with his toy soldiers. Jamie Morton looks up to see a striking man, the new minister. Charles Jacobs, along with his beautiful wife, will transform the local church. The men and boys are all a bit in love with Mrs. Jacobs; the women and girls feel the same about Reverend Jacobs - including Jamie’s mother and beloved sister, Claire. With Jamie, the Reverend shares a deeper bond based on a secret obsession.

The Mist

In the wake of a destructive Maine summer thunderstorm, an impenetrable mist descends from the direction of a local military facility and infiltrates the small town of Bridgton. David Drayton and his son, Billy, are dragged into a living nightmare as unnatural and violent forces concealed by the mist begin to emerge, wreaking havoc in their wake.

Mr Mercedes

Described as 'the best thriller of the year' Sunday Express, the No. 1 bestseller introduces retired cop Bill Hodges in a race against time to apprehend a killer. A cat-and-mouse suspense thriller featuring Bill Hodges, a retired cop who is tormented by 'the Mercedes massacre', a case he never solved. Brady Hartsfield, perpetrator of that notorious crime, has sent Hodges a taunting letter.

Joyland

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Blood and Smoke

This collection of short stories from the master of modern fiction is available only as an audiobook. In Blood and Smoke, Stephen King takes us inside a world of yearning and paranoia, isolation and addiction. It is the world of the smoker. In this audio-only collection, the now politically incorrect habit plays a key role in the fates of three different men.

The Man in the Black Suit: 4 Dark Tales

A haunting recollection of a mysterious boyhood event, The Man in the Black Suit leads off this masterful collection from Stephen King. Other dark tales include: All That You Love Will Be Carried Away, in which a man checks into a Lincoln, Nebraska Motel 6 to find the meaning in his life; That Feeling, You Can Only Say What It Is in French, presents the ultimate case of deja vu; and The Death of Jack Hamilton, a blistering tale of Depression-era outlaws on the run.

Rose Madder

Rosie Daniels leaves her husband, Norman, after 14 years in an abusive marriage. She is determined to lose herself in a place where he won't find her. She'll worry about all the rest later. Alone in a strange city, she begins to make a new life, and good things finally start to happen. Meeting Bill is one, and getting an apartment is another. Still, it's hard for Rosie not to keep looking over her shoulder, and with good reason. Norman is a cop, with the instincts of a predator.

Blaze: A Novel

Blaze is the story of Clayton Blaisdell, Jr., of the crimes committed against him and the crimes he commits, including his last, the kidnapping of a baby heir worth millions. Blaze has been a slow thinker since childhood, when his father threw him down the stairs and then threw him down again. After escaping an abusive institution for boys when he was a teenager, Blaze hooks up with George, a seasoned criminal who thinks he has all the answers.

The Bazaar of Bad Dreams: Stories

A master storyteller at his best - the O. Henry Prize winner Stephen King delivers a generous collection of stories, several of them brand-new, featuring revelatory autobiographical comments on when, why, and how he came to write (or rewrite) each story. Magnificent, eerie, utterly compelling, these stories comprise one of King's finest gifts to his constant fan. "I made them especially for you," says King. "Feel free to examine them, but please be careful. The best of them have teeth."

Dolores Claiborne

Dolores Claiborne is suspected of killing Vera Donovan, her wealthy employer, and when the police question her, she tells the story of her life, harkening back to her disintegrating marriage and the suspicious death of her violent husband 30 years earlier. Dolores also tells of Vera's physical and mental decline and how she became emotionally demanding in recent years.

The Long Walk

In the near future, when America has become a police state, 100 boys are selected to enter an annual contest where the winner will be awarded whatever he wants for the rest of his life. Among them is 16-year-old Ray Garraty, and he knows the rules - keep a steady walking pace of four miles per hour without stopping. Three warnings and you're out - permanently.

Graveyard Shift and Other Stories From Night Shift

Consummate master of his craft, Stephen King has kept millions awake past midnight shivering at tales that probe the shadows and reveal the dark side. Now listeners can chill to this second dramatic unabridged production of short stories from his best selling book, Night Shift. It brings Stephen King's demonic stories fully to life - and the terror even closer to home.

Duma Key: A Novel

A terrible accident takes Edgar Freemantle's right arm and scrambles his memory and his mind, leaving him with little but rage as he begins the ordeal of rehabilitation. When his marriage suddenly ends, Edgar begins to wish he hadn't survived his injuries. He wants out. His psychologist suggests a new life distant from the Twin Cities, along with something else.

Roadwork

Barton Dawes' unremarkable but comfortable existence suddenly takes a turn for the worst. A new highway extension is being built right over the laundry plant where he works - and right over his home. Dawes isn't the sort of man who will take an insult of this magnitude lying down. His steadfast determination to fight the inevitable course of progress drives his wife and friends away while he tries to face down the uncaring bureaucracy that has destroyed his life.

Publisher's Summary

What happens when, on a perfectly ordinary evening, all the things you believed in and took for granted are turned upside down?

When her husband of more than 20 years is away on one of his business trips, Darcy Anderson looks for batteries in the garage. Her toe knocks up against a box under a worktable and she discovers the stranger inside her husband. It’s a horrifying discovery, rendered with bristling intensity, and it definitively ends a good marriage.

If you are looking to read "A Good Marriage" and "Big Driver", you should buy "Full Dark, No Stars" instead. Both short stories are apart of that book and you will get two more other novellas. I forgot that I already read "A Good Marriage" after I saw the movie. That's why I bought this story again. I was about to buy "Big Driver" after I saw the commercial on Lifetime, but glad that I did some digging because I already read it. Hopefully, they will make "1922" into a film from "Full Dark, No Stars". That is the best story out of the four. As for "A Good Marriage", the movie comes close to the short story.

What made the experience of listening to A Good Marriage the most enjoyable?

I read this shortly after binge-watching the show Who the Bleep Did I Marry. While I'm pretty sure it spoiled the reveal, I still enjoyed King's pacing and character development. I really like and sympathized with Darcy. While the ending was not terribly surprising, it felt right.

What didn’t you like about Jessica Hecht’s performance?

Hecht's performance was off because she injected levity and laughter when it really did not fit. A more somber reader would have felt more realistic.

This is the story of a woman who has been happily married to a good man for many, many years. He's never been anything but good to her and a wonderful father to her children. But one day, while she's looking for something in the garage, she finds his secret hiding place. A box that is full of something that will change everything she thought she knew about him. Can she keep that secret from him? Can she live her life and pretend that she doesn't know that her husband is not who she thought he was? What would you do? Would you want to end a marriage with a man you'd loved your whole life? It's a good story. Stephen King doesn't tell bad stories. The narrator was a bit annoying when she did the wife's voice but the story was good enough to overlook that. I would recommend this one. It's good.<br/>

I should have listened to the audio sample! The narrator and her narration are unlistenable. Her voice is grating and her reading style is stilted, with odd pauses and inflections. I have never have bothered listening to the audio sample and I've been burned a couple times now.

Would you ever listen to anything by Stephen King again?

YES! I love some of his work. It's hit or miss, but even the misses have their good points.

Would you be willing to try another one of Jessica Hecht’s performances?

No, never.

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Disappointment, straight up. I couldn't even move into the territory of anger or sadness, because the disappointment ended the whole experience early.

In 2000, I had a Palm III, a handheld computer a little larger and heavier than today's iPhone 5. It had a stylus a special way to synchronize and write, and (available for separate purchase) a camera and a keyboard. It also had the world's first mass-market ebook, Stephen King's "Riding the Bullet". The eerily floating gray-green words on a black screen; sentences and paragraphs scrolling automatically at my exact reading speed; and a late evening with the lights off and a glass of good red wine made that novella mean more to me than it ever did on actual paper.

"A Good Marriage" was originally published in Stephen King's 2010 novella collection, "Full Dark, No Stars". The book sold well - all of King's books do - but I thought the stories were lackluster, or tried too hard to shock, or both. When I finished the read, I put the hardback on my bookshelf, and so thoroughly forgot it I didn't remember reading about the 27 year marriage of Darcy and Bob Anderson when I clicked "purchase" on Audible.

The turned out to be a fortunate mistake. "A Good Marriage" (2014 Audible copyright) works very well as an audio narration because of the excellent performance by Jessica Hecht. Hecht becomes the credulous, complacent and self-satisfied Darcy who literally stumbles across her husband Bob's secret. Hecht's about the same age as the fictional homemaker, and plays the sweet, even tempered woman unwittingly married to a man who bears a physical and avocational resemblance to Dennis Rader, the BTK killer. King imagines an answer to a question we've all asked, "Did Paula Rader know? Did Green River Killer Gary Ridgeway's wives Marcia or Judith know? Did they?"

Hecht's performance makes a so-so story chilling and memorable, just as delivering "Riding the Bullet" electronically made that story frightening and unforgettable.

The Audible release must be timed to coincide with the October 3, 2014 release of the film adaptation of "A Good Marriage" starring Anthony LaPaglia and Joan Allen. I haven't seen it, so I don't know how the movie compares to the book compares to the Audible.

I read it previously in Full Dark, No Stars. I would read it again but not this audio version. The narration was worse than horrible. The sing-song fake sounding voice did not match the dark story. She actually sounded like a cartoon character when she spoke as Darcy. I've listened to at least 200 audio books This one was bad, bad, bad. It should be pulled and narrated by someone else, in my opinion.

No disrespect to Ms. Hecht, this is the second story by Stephen King that I have listened to her being the narrator and each time I just do not like her voice. The inflections, the breathy-ness of it, the sound as if she is smirking or making a joke of a line when she should not be.

I have never felt so compelled to write a review for anything as I do for this book. The story was ok, typical of the author, no surprises... the ending was lackluster. The part that was almost unbearable was the narrator. It almost made me not finish the book. The wife's voice was comical and sing-song. It sounded as if she were constantly giggling to some inside joke. And the men's voices were just as annoying. I will never listen to anything narrated by this person, and I would suggest listening to the voice sample of the book before purchase. I am mad I wasted my credit!

Although this story has the basics of a classic King story, it is a little predictable. That said, I'm sure I'd have still enjoyed it if it weren't for the awful reading. My God, the sappy, breathy, pornesque dits giving this performance was almost impossible to endure. I've listened to hundreds of audiobooks and this voice is without doubt the worst I've heard. Her tone made the character seem stupid when I don't believe she was and also made me wish she was one of the victims rather than the hero. Awful. Awful. Awful. Thank God it was a 3 hour title or Id have gone postal. The most annoying read ever- give it a miss!